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Camaro, Mustang, Challenger set for modern pony-car war

June 11, 2009

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Forty summers ago was a magical time for performance-car enthusiasts--specifically for fans of high-horsepower pony cars. The summer of 1969 broke with Detroit in a high-octane horsepower war among the Big Three automakers. With the carmakers trying to outmuscle one another, the winners were the customers.

By 1969, Fords Mustang had been around nearly half a decade, and hundreds of thousands were on the road. The local Ford dealership had eight Mustang engine variants for sale, from a pedestrian six-cylinder, 220-hp model all the way up to the Boss 429 cranking out 370 hp.

At the Chevrolet store, the Camaro, launched in 1967 as a Mustang fighter, was gaining traction against the original pony car, with 10 versions for sale. At the bottom was a 140-hp six-cylinder, at the top a 396-cubic-inch V8 making 375 hp.

Chrysler arrived late to the pony-car battle, but when it did, with a 1970-model-year car, it came with the biggest gun: the Dodge Challenger R/T, with a 426 V8 Hemi cranking out 425 hp, just one of the models among 11 Challenger offerings.

Those were the good old days.

Fast-forward 40 years, and you can once again find brand-new Camaros, Challengers and Mustangs for sale. And after spending a week with the latest editions of Detroits pony cars--the Camaro SS, the Challenger SRT8 and the Mustang Shelby GT500--we could make a strong argument that the cars are far better today.

These are the good old days.

The Camaro is just making its reentry into the battle after four generations of cars from 1967 to 2002, while the Challenger was built for just five model years (1970 to 74; we wont talk about the Challenger-badged Mitsubishi Galants of the 80s) and made its comeback last year. The Mustang, including the Mustang II days of the 70s, has been with us straight since 1964.

We drove the three cars on several consecutive days over a variety of roads, including city, highway and rural two-lanes. We lived with the cars over a weekend in which we hauled people and stuff. Just to make sure we had a full experience, the cars were flogged at the test track, where they were able to stretch their legs. The time spent in these cars was revealing--and a whole lot of fun.

For more on our tire-burning test of these three icons, check out the June 15 issue of AutoWeek.